REVIEW: FOURTH CHAPTER, PRAHRAN
The drool factor is high when it comes to Prahran's Fourth Chapter's breakfast and lunch spread. Cravings for their photogenic spread were finally fixed during a visit to the eatery with some fellow food bloggers a few months earlier...
With several items on the menu catching our eyes and bellies, we decided to forgo the usual ordering of one dish per person and ordered three savouries plus an extra dessert dish to share.
We kicked off the savoury portion of our meal with the unconventional savoury french toast, seeing a pairing with mushrooms, parmesan, poached eggs and creme fraiche instead of sweeter accompaniments. The french toast was spot on; fluffy and light, and not too eggy in flavour. The creamy, cheesy and yolky mess that followed not too long after digging in made for one indulgent and delicious flavour combo that made the dish soar. The flavour profile of the beetroot cheddar waffle, served with hot smoked salmon, avo, punchy dill creme fraiche and poached egg, also sported plenty of character. While the Southern fried chicken bao lacked imagination compared to the other savouries we had tried, the dish was executed to perfection. The bao was silky light and the teaming of the crispy chicken with a spicy sweet sriracha aioli and pickled slaw offered incredible balance, not to mention much deliciousness, to each bite.
The waffles made another appearance with dessert, replacing the beetroot and cheddar presence in the savoury variant with PB in the peanut butter s'more waffle dish. The waffles weren't overly sweet, with much of the overall sweetness provided by the salted caramel, caramelised banana and highly-squishable toasted marshmallows.
It had been a while since my last brunch encounter where all dishes managed to knock my socks off but Fourth Chapter managed to do exactly that. At least for the dishes we had tried anyway. Despite probably being a tad too ambitious with our ordering, the taste and wow factor of the dishes made it worth it!
